Home Brewer's Guide Author to Tour Northeast

February 17, 2014

British beer author and blogger Ron Pattinson will tour the Northeast this March to promote his new book, The Homebrewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. The 160-page edition from Quarry Books explores classic beer styles (pale ale, porter, stock ale, burton ale, table beer, etc.) and includes recipes for recreating these beers as they were brewed between 1800 and 1950.

Pattinson's itinerary will take him to Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC. Some details still need to be worked out, however, on March 10, Pattinson is scheduled to appear at Brouwerij Lane in New York, which will serve one of his recipes (possibly, a double brown ale) as recreated by Massachusetts-based Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project.

On March 14, Pattinson will be in Williamsburg, Va., homebrewing with Frank Clark of Historic Foodways and delivering a public lecture. ('I'll talk about brewing in the past in my own inimical, manic style, with a tsunami of statistics and tables stretching past the horizon,' jokes Pattinson.)

The lecture, Beer, Ale and Malt Liquor: Brewing in 18th-century England, will take place 5:30-6:30 p.m., Hennage Auditorium, Art Museums.

March 15 will bring a book signing, lecture and beer tasting at 3 Stars Brewing Co. in Washington, DC. Local home brew club Brewers United for Real Potables is organizing a discussion group and will be brewing six of Pattinson's recipes, including 1850 Truman Imperial Stout, 1867 Barclay Perkins Porter, 1885 Younger XP (a well-hopped Scottish ale), 1899 Barclay Perkins Pale Ale, 1910 Fullers AK (a best bitter) and 1933 Whitbread Brown Ale.

On March 16, the Free State Homebrewers Club will hold a launch event for Pattinson's book at Maryland Homebrew in Columbia, Md.

'I'm 57, was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but grew up in the brewing and malting town of Newark-on-Trent,' Pattinson says of his background. 'My first job was filling kegs in the former James Hole brewery, then romantically called Courage (Newark). I joined CAMRA on my 18th birthday and carried Michael Jackson's World Guide to Beer with me on European trips.'

He continues, 'I've always been interested in the history of beer and, frustrated by conflicting stories about the history of porter, I decided to do some primary research. After discovering that the London Metropolitan Archives had the brewing records of four of the big London porter brewers, I'd fly into London for the day three or four times a year just to photograph them.'

Pattinson has self-published several books, and you can access his blog, Shut Up About Barclay Perkins, aty barclayperkins.blogspot.com .